I am an ENFP personality type (Myers Briggs), and as such am easily distracted, this can make prayer difficult, especially when focus and silence are required! This is not helped by the fact that under pressure I become introverted, and INFP's are notorious for not getting anything finished..
....I find I need focus, and for me the focus that works best is imagery. This week I discovered two images that helped me to pray. One became an intercession, the other was adoration and praise.
The first image was nothing new; it is a well known piece that comes in many forms the most famous being by Michael Angelo, and that is the pieta. The image of Mary holding her lifeless and broken son became for me an intercession for the world, and one for which I had no words. I had just watched Panorama's expose of the chocolate trade "The bitter truth" and found myself lost for words, this along with several other incidents that life brings were weighing heavy on me and I needed to pray but distraction kept setting in.
I was thinking about the pieta for another reason when that thinking turned to prayer. As I held the image in my mind I saw in Christs brokenness the brokenness of each situation and was able to hold them before God in a powerful way. Words were unnecessary...
I find El Greco's painting to be a powerful interpretation.
The second image was more a vista, Tim and I went for a walk on Friday to Grimwith Reservoir in the Yorkshire Dales, as the expanse of the scene opened before me walking too became a prayer, it was like breathing praise which turned to adoration:
So why am I blogging this, well mostly because I often speak to folk who struggle with prayer, they feel guilty that they are not praying properly, whatever properly might be, and it saddens me that although there are many ways to pray that we still promote a few word based or silent options to folk. No wonder people feel bereft and alone at best, and forgotten and guilty at worst...So perhaps it is time to get creative..
I wonder how do you pray best? Let me know in the comments...
Finally just for fun I thought you''d enjoy this table based on Myers Briggs personality types:
